Mr. Maurer began thinking about circumcision at the precocious age of four during a visit to a public health clinic. He was there for an immunization, but as he sat in the waiting room, he heard a baby screaming, he recalls. He later learned that the baby was being circumcised. He remembers the baby's mother emerging from the exam room, tears streaming down her face, with her little boy wrapped in a blanket. He went into the exam room where the baby had just been circumcised and remembers the nurse wiping the counter.

The father of a son and a daughter, both grown, Mr. Maurer says he did not circumcise his son. "He played basketball throughout grade school and high school, and was never teased in the locker room. Nor has he suffered any medical consequences cited by proponents of circumcision," Mr. Maurer says. "My son is 26 and intact, and he's still waiting for that first problem," he laughs.